Episode 78 Transcript

Findmypast and Ancestry have both recently launched collections for Irish Catholic Parish records. Both companies announced their indexes on the same day, March 1st, and they both call the collection Irish Catholic Parish Registers.

Each collection contains over 10 million Irish Catholic Parish Registers. They are both fully indexed. The index is for the National Library of Ireland’s collection of Irish Catholic Registers.

The indexes link directly to the images at the National Library of Ireland’s website. The images are free to access at the library’s website, however, you will need to subscribe to Findmypast or Ancestry to search using the indexes.

Ancestry has free access to all its Irish records collection during the month of March. You will need to register for an account in order to access these records.

Findmypast has made the index to the Irish Catholic Parish Registers free forever. You will need to register at Findmypast to use the index but you will not have to be a paying subscriber.

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The site RootsIreland.ie is offering a 12 month subscription for the cost of a six-month subscription during the month of March. That would be approximately $142 US.

The Irish Family History Foundation owns the website. They coordinate a network of County genealogy centers in family history societies in Ireland. The website contains the databases from these centers and family history societies, census returns, and gravestone inscriptions. All of these records are searchable at the website.

The site also has an index to the National Library of Ireland images of parish registers. Ancestry and Findmypas just announced their indexes to the same images. However the index at RootsIreland also contains a transcription of the records.

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A new research tool for Ireland has been launched. It’s called Townland Explorer.

It was developed by a will-known genealogist – Shane Wilson. He has a very useful website at swilson.info. There you will find many useful maps, directories, helpful guides, and other research material all pertaining to Ireland and all free.

Townland Explorer has been added to the website. You can search for areas to get a list of all the civil parishes and towns that are included within a Registrar’s District. You can search using wildcards or browse all towns and townlands within an area.

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The site IrishNewspapers.com is a US version of the site IrishNewsArchive.com. The US version will be shutting down. Subscriptions are no longer available. If you have a subscription you will be able to access the site until your current subscription expires.

IrishNewspapers.com was launched about a year ago by Ancestry. The actual newspapers came from IrishNewsArchive.com but had an interface similar to another Ancestry site, newspapers.com.

By having two sites with similar names many people thought they were owned and managed by different organizations. They were not owned by different organizations. All the content that was found at IrishNewspapers.com can be found at IrishNewsArchive.com. A subscription to IrishNewsArchive.com costs $10 per day, $30 per month, or $178 per year.

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The Easter Rising occurred in Ireland on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916 and lasted for six days. A group of Irish nationalists wanted to end British rule in Ireland and staged a rebellion against the British government. During this rebellion more than 2,000 people died or were injured. The leaders of the rebellion were eventually executed. Initially there was little support from the Irish people for the Easter rising. However public opinion changed and the executed leaders of the rebellion were hailed as heroes. In 1921 a treaty was signed that established the Irish Free State which eventually became what we know of as today the Republic of Ireland.

That means that the Easter rising occurred 100 years ago. There are many things going on to celebrate the centenary.

The Irish newspaper archives that I was just talking about has free access to all of the newspapers from 1916. There are 33 titles that you can search for free. You can view the days’ events that led up to the rebellion, all the news about the rebellion, and what happened after the rebellion. As well as everything else that happened in the year 1916.

Free access to these newspapers will only be available for a limited time. You will need to enter your name and email address to begin searching the newspapers.

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AncestryDNA is now available in 29 new countries. It has been available in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Some large countries are not in the new list such as France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

Ancestry has announced that Family Tree Maker has been updated and is now shipping. It does seem strange for them to make this announcement because they no longer own the product. Both the Windows version and the Mac version have been updated.

The update is focused on performance and stability. They’ve added more artwork for charts and reports and changed the splash screens and icons to reflect the new company that owns Family Tree Maker and that would be MacKiev.

If you would like to purchase Family Tree Maker you have to buy it directly from the MacKiev website. Eventually you will be able to buy it elsewhere. And eventually the familytreemaker.com website will offer it for sale. Currently that website is still an Ancestry website.

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RootsMagic has released version 7.1. This update adds the ability to directly import files for Family Tree Maker. RootsMagic can import from all the previous versions of Family Tree Maker. They boast that they can import a bigger variety of Family Tree Maker files than any single version of Family Tree Maker itself.

Also it will import all the media files from the Family Tree Maker file.

RootsMagic does not directly read files from the latest version of Family Tree Maker that MacKiev recently released. The new version changed the file format. If you have the new version, you can export your data as Family Tree Maker 2012, RootsMagic can read that version.

There’s been an update to the Family Historian program. It’s a free upgrade for those who have version 6. The upgrade is version 6.1. It’s the largest free upgrade the program has had for more than 10 years.

Some of the changes are easier installation of upgrades, you can now add source citations for parent-child relationships, there is improved handling of source citation media, it automatically fixes problems with missing pictures, there are no more unnecessary slashes around the surnames, and you can automatically take snapshots of your file so you can easily revert back to an earlier version if you need to.

This new version includes the ability to directly import files from the recently discontinued program, The Master Genealogist. Before you had to export your data from The Master Genealogist as a GEDCOM and then import that file into Family Historian. When you do it that way there is a possibility you will loose some information.

It’s important to do a direct import because all genealogy programs save data differently and when you export it as a GEDCOM, some of the extra data that is not part of the GEDCOM format may be stored in the notes or not stored at all.

The new version of Family Historian also imports GEDCOMs from Family Tree Maker and Ancestry and that import has greatly improved.

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Heredis is another program for keeping track of your ancestors. They’ve come out with an app for Android that’s in beta. They’ve already had an iOS version for a couple of years.

Since the Android app is a beta version, some features will not be available. These features will be coming in a few months making the Android app have all the same features as the iOS version.

You can only send your Heredis files to the app if you are using the 2015 version for either Windows or Mac.

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At this year’s RootsTech Innovator Challenge Twile won 3rd place and the people’s choice award. Twile is used to create timelines with photos and milestones. You can do this for your ancestors as well as for yourself as you live your life. They’ve added three new features.

There a new Twile Family subscription that will make it easier for everyone in your family to view and contribute to a timeline. The subscription will cost $124.99 per year. If you have a subscription you can enable every single living person on your family tree so they can add unlimited events and photos to the timeline. This is good for those who might not be able to afford a personal option and for those who contribute only once in a while.

There is a Twile premium subscription for $49.99. With a premium subscription only one person can contribute to the timeline. You can also use Twile for free to explore a timeline that’s been shared with you.

Another new feature is that it’s now possible to add other people to milestones. This means that when you add something it will get added to the timelines of others since they were involved in the event.

You can add many photos for an event in Twile. It automatically chooses a cover photo that you see while you scroll through your timeline. Now you can choose what the cover photo will be. This gives you more control over how your timeline looks.

They are working on more improvements such as how events are displayed, new milestone types, and making Twile faster.

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More new records at FamilySearch

New indexed record collection
United States World War II Prisoners of War 1941-1945

The following have new indexed records and images
England Devon Bishop’s Transcripts 1558-1887
Massachusetts Delayed and Corrected Vital Records 1753-1900

The FamilySearch Research Wiki is scheduled for an update in March. The content will stay the same but the pages will expand to the entire screen size.

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MyHeritage has released Record Detective II.

The original Record Detective automatically used MyHeritage’s SuperSearch to point to additional records of family tree profiles related to the same person. This version was only able to find information when there was at least one family tree profile found at MyHeritage that matched the record. Not all records match the family tree profile.

With Record Detective II, they’ve overcome this limitation. This will result in a much greater number of matching documents for each record. What this means is that a record you found on MyHeritage can be used to find many more records about the same person.

MyHeritage has added over 5 million Dutch records to SuperSearch. These include the birth, marriage, and death records from the Rotterdam City Archives. All the records are from Rotterdam Netherlands. The birth records are from 1811 to 1913, the marriage records are from 1811 to 1935, and the death records are from 1811 through 1960. All of the records are indexed.

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Findmypast is added some records on their Findmypast Fridays. They added the United Irishmen newspaper to the Irish Newspapers collection.

They added military tribunals for Middlesex and Northamptonshire. The military tribunal hearings were held during the First World War so men could appeal their conscription into the British Army. They could appeal based on their health, serious economic hardship, their objection to the war, or if they were involved in something that was of national importance.

Findmypast has added transcripts of monumental inscriptions from nine burial sites across Middlesex.

The Lancashire, Manchester Cremation Records 1818-2001 have been added.

They’ve added court documents for Tavistock in West Devon and Plymouth & West Devon land tax and valuation records.

They added the New Zealand, Women’s Suffrage Petition that lists the names of the women who signed the 1893 petition to grant women the right to vote in New Zealand.

And the added New York passenger lists and arrivals spanning the 1800s and 1900s.

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RootsWeb has been down for a couple of weeks. This means the mailings lists are not working and you can’t access the free GenWeb sites that were developed by volunteers. Some of the state GenWeb sites are hosted on other servers so they are not affected by this outage.

A notice on the website says:

We’re currently experiencing a temporary website outage due to RootsWeb hardware failure. Rest assured, our development and web operations teams are busy working to securely restore the site as quickly as possible.

It should be back up on March 15th. RootsWeb is part of Ancestry.

Today is March 15th and the site appears to be working. However, the messages is still on the website about when it will be working again.

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The Allen County Public Library in Indiana is a well-known genealogy library. It has been remodeled with a new Discovery Center and a new Life Stories Center. The remodeling began in December and was paid for with a grant from the Allen County Public Library Foundation.

The Discovery Center is located where there were many microfilm and micro text viewing machines which are no longer needed since more information is made available in a digital format today. The Discovery Center can seat up to 240 people theater-style. It can accommodate small groups or large groups and is wired with all the latest technology.

The Life Stories Center is located on the second floor and takes the place of the room where visitors once watched an orientation video on how to use the center’s resources. People view this video online before they arrive at the library so it was no longer need in the library.

There will be Genealogy Center staff who will mentor people on how to conduct oral history interviews. Recording equipment will be available for checkout. The center is modeled on the StoryCorps project. StoryCorps is a public service that lets anyone record their story and have it preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

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There is a new state law in Indiana that will allow anyone who was adopted between 1941 and 1993 access their birth records. Before this law was signed those who were born during those years could only see their birth records if the birth parents filled out a consent form.

Birth records will be made available for adoptees beginning in July 2018. Birth parents who do not want the information revealed can file a non-disclosure form with the State Department of Health.

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More maps are coming online. These are in the form of globes that are being digitized at the University of Southern Maine. They are trying to re-create the experience of viewing objects up close. In their new 3-D imaging project they are taking some of the globes in their Osher Map Library (OML) accessible online. So far they have placed two of the oldest maps online and they hope to digitize 24 globes in the multiyear imaging project. They are also digitizing the manuals that originally came with the globes.

Older globes are not usually available to patrons and the main reason of the project was to increase usability of the globes.

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A new database will be launched mid-April in Canada with hundreds of years of historical documents from the Eastern Townships. That would be places in southeastern Québec.

This new website will allow you to search for people and places, and browse the materials. This new website was made possible by a grant from the Library and Archives Canada.

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The Library and Archives Canada slowly continues to digitize the Canadian Expeditionary Force Personnel Service Files from World War I. They are doing this in alphabetical order and they are now up to the surname Holland.

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Canadiana.org contains books, newspapers, periodicals, images and nationally significant archival materials from Canadian libraries. They have recently completed a project of publications that document early history of professional architecture, urban planning, and municipal governance in Canada.

These are periodicals that were published before 1921. They describe the early architectural and design profession and they include town planning and spatial organization, aesthetics, technical and scientific innovations in construction, municipal management, public policy, and social reform.

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The website ScotlandsPeople has released the 1930 Scottish valuation roles. It’s free to search until March 17 and then only one credit per page of 25 results thereafter. You can view images for two credits per record.

The government gathered information about the ownership and tenancy of land and houses in order to raise property taxes. This was saved as a Valuation Roll.

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The National Archives of Norway has launched a photo archive. In this new archive you will find pictures from the 1860s until about 1980. The images are sorted by county and you can search by keywords.

The collection is comprised of images from the state archives, private archives, business archives, and photographic and press archives.

Most of the images can be freely used. A few images have certain restrictions on commercial use. The images can be downloaded as high quality for printing or downloaded as a lesser quality for placing the image online.

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The National Library of Australia is facing some budget cuts. During this year and next year, the library needs to make $4.4 million of ongoing savings. The library is mandated to collect a copy every book and publication created in Australia.

About 20 people will loose their jobs this year with more to follow next year.

The quarterly National Library of Australia magazine will no longer be published. The library is reducing the number of international print and online subscriptions available to members.

And the library will cease aggregating content in Trove. Trove is a website where you can find online resources for Australia such as books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, and archives. About 70,000 people use Trove each day.

There is a #fundTrove campaign going on where people can use the hash tag #fundTrove to voice their support of Trove. You can tell about your discoveries using Trove, express your outrage over the funding cuts, or show your gratitude for having the service. It’s hoped that this campaign will help to continue to fund Trove.

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The National Archives of Australia will be moving 15 million items to a new storage facility in Canberra. The site will be ready in November and it’s hoped all the items will be moved by June next year.

This will be a state-of-the-art building to ensure the items will be preserved. These are very old items. Newer items are in a digital format so they don’t take up so much space.

Today digital preservation is about how to ensure the documents are still readable as technology changes.

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During the Korean War many American or UN soldiers fathered children with Korean women. Many of these children were adopted into American families.

Mixed-race babies were rejected by Korean society because usually their mothers were prostitutes. This meant that these children had difficulties attending school or receiving healthcare because they were not eligible to be Korean citizens. Only Korean men could pass down citizenship and for these children’s their father was American.

Some of these children went with their fathers to America and others were adopted by American families.

There is a new organization whose goal is to connect adoptees with their biological Korean relatives. It’s called 325Kamra and it was launched last November.

They are using DNA to do this. The organization plans to gather DNA from Korean women and biological relatives who are related to children that were adopted. The samples will be sent to a U.S.-based genealogy company for analysis. The more people who are in this database, the greater chances of adoptees finding their birth families.

325Kamra ships free DNA kits to Korean adoptees living outside the United States and it also ships kits to Korean relatives in Korea. The kits were donated by Thomas Parke Clement, a mixed race adoptee and he has pledged to provide $1 million worth of DNA kits to the Korean adopted community.

The group will visit South Korea in April to collect DNA samples from former sex workers during the Korean War to add to the database.

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There are some free online classes available. One called Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree is offered by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. It’s online so anyone can take the course. It’s taught by the University’s Center for Lifelong Learning.

The course will teach you basic genealogy techniques and how to communicate your family history.

Another course called Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912-1923 will be offered by Trinity College Dublin. It’s also offered online and it’s free. This course was previously offered last September.

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The Federation of Genealogical Societies will hold its 2017 conference in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on August 30 – September 2. The theme is “Building Bridges to the Past.”

They have put out a call for presentations. The main focus for presentations are

The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is Wednesday, June 1, 2016.

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The National Genealogical Society will live stream ten lectures from its conference that will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this coming May. On Thursday May 5, there will be 5 lectures about land records and maps. On Friday May 6, there will be 5 lectures about methods for success.

Each day costs $65 for members or $80 for non-members. If you want both days it costs $115 for members and $145 for non-members.

The lectures will be recorded for viewing later. You may even be attending the conference and purchase the live streaming to view the lectures after you return home from the conference.

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TLC has announced the line up for the show Who Do You Think You Are? There will be six episodes. Here is the list of stars who will be looking into their family history:

Scott Foley is an actor, director, and screenwriter who has appeared on numerous television shows. He will be looking into his deep American roots.

Lea Michele is an actress, singer, and author. She played Rachel Berry in the television show Glee. She will be finding out about her immigrant ancestors and what they endured to get to the US.

Chris North is an actor who is known for his roles in Law & Order, and Sex and the City. He learns about how some if his American ancestors suffered.

Molly Ringwald is an actress, singer, dancer, and author. She will be finding out about her Swedish ancestors.

Katey Sagal is an actress and singer-songwriter. She finds out about her Amish roots.

Aisha Tyler is an actress, comedian, author, producer, writer, and director. She tracks down some new stories about a couple of her ancestors.

The new season will start on Sunday, April 3.

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The PBS Genealogy Roadshow will be returning for its third season on Tuesday, May 17. There will be 4 episodes where people from Boston, Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles find out about their ancestors.

The hosts for the show are D. Joshua Taylor, Kenyatta Berry and Mary Tedesco.

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The Travel Channel has a new show starting on March 21 called Follow Your Past. It’s about ordinary Americans who travel to locations to find out about their connection to history. Journalist and author Alison Stewart accompanies individuals as they go to different locations to walk in their ancestor’s footsteps.

And don’t forget about all the Google Hangouts with Dear Myrtle. There’s Mondays with Myrt, ESM’s QuickLessons Study Group on Wednesday mornings, Wacky Wednesday on Wednesday evenings, and Saturday Game Night.

Plus join the genealogist in Second life for meetings each week to discuss genealogy.

You can find all the webinars mentioned and more at the calendar at Geneatopia.com.

And that’s it for this episode.

You can send email to geneatopia@gmail.com

You can find links to things mentioned in this show in the show notes at Geneatopia.com as well as a transcript. The transcript can also be found in the Geneatopia Flipboard magazine.